


Motherless Mongrels

by Em_Jaye



Series: Good Madness [7]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-07 19:51:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14678265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Em_Jaye/pseuds/Em_Jaye
Summary: "May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness"-Neil GaimanMother's Day





	Motherless Mongrels

Darcy paused with her hand on the handle of Steve’s front door and frowned at a sound on the other side she’d never heard before.

Someone slamming a door.

The Rogers were not door-slammers. She waited for another moment, wondering if she should knock before her curiosity won out and she pushed the door open.

The house was unusually quiet.

Normally by the time she arrived on Saturday afternoons, Steve and Charlotte were in the midst of their weekend chores. Music was playing and conversations were shouted up and down stairs and over the hum of a vacuum cleaner.

“Hello?” she called as she tossed her purse on the hook by the door. “Steve?”

“I’m back here,” he called from the kitchen, an unfamiliar edge in his voice.

She made her way back with caution and found Steve leaning against the counter, his shoulders tense. “Hey,” she greeted, relieved when he looked up and smiled briefly. “What’s up?”

He scrubbed his hands over his face and let out a sound of frustration. “Charlotte and I just had a fight.”

“Was that her door I just heard slamming?”

“Sure was.”

“Uh-oh,” Darcy winced. “You guys never fight,” she realized aloud. “What happened?”

“Officially,” he said, “I’m the worst father in the world because I won’t let her dye her hair pink.” He sighed with a shake of his head. “Apparently all of her friends have been putting crazy colors in their hair and she’s the only one whose dad is saying no.”

“What, those little streaks you comb in?” Darcy asked and tilted her head to one side.

“I don’t know,” Steve grumbled. “I guess.”

“They wash right out after a week. Why the hard stance?” she asked before she held up her hands. “Not trying to tell you how to do your Daddy thing,” she said quickly. “Just curious.”

“Because she doesn’t need pink hair, she’s perfect the way she is.” Darcy pursed her lips and waited while he continued. “Plus, she’s got dance pictures on Thursday and…” his argument was quickly running out of steam before he added, “And you can’t get a job with pink hair, everyone knows that.”

Still desperately trying to keep a straight face, Darcy crossed her arms over her chest. “And…just what kind of lucrative career opportunities are you worried about your nine-year-old missing out on?”

Steve looked up, a faint blush on his cheeks. “I didn’t mean…obviously I don’t mean _now_ ,” he grumbled.

Darcy caught the hint of a smile tugging at his lips. “You said ‘officially’ before,” she reminded.” What about unofficially?Something else going on?”

Steve sighed again. “I don’t know. We’ve had a rough week,” he admitted. “She’s been in a bad mood since she got home from Girl Scouts on Wednesday and she won’t tell me why.” He glanced down once before he looked up and grimaced. “You think I’m overreacting? About the hair thing?”

Darcy moved her shoulders, non-committal. “I think there’s probably a compromise somewhere around here,” she suggested gently. “But I can go try to talk to her, if you want.”

Steve looked surprised. “You sure?”

She shrugged again. “Why not? She’s not mad at me,” she said with a grin.

Steve reached out and pulled her in for a kiss. “Don’t take it personally if she doesn’t want to talk.”

Darcy rested her hands on his chest. “I won’t,” she promised.

“Those colors really wash out after a week?” he asked, dubiously.

She nodded. “At best,” she said and stretched up on her toes to kiss him again. “Think about it.”

Darcy climbed the stairs and paused before she knocked tentatively on Charlotte’s door.

“I made a sign!” Charlotte called from inside.

Darcy stepped back in surprise and noticed that she had, in fact made a sign. Plain white paper, in red marker, _KEEP OUT IF YOUR DAD_!

She swallowed back the urge to find the little girl’s anger adorable and knocked again. “It’s Darcy,” she said quietly. “Can I come in?”

A long, heavy pause.

“Okay.”

The knob turned easily and Darcy stepped inside to find Charlotte scribbling quickly in a journal with bright blue pages. She glanced up only briefly before she returned her attention to the words she was putting on the page.

Darcy carefully closed the door behind her and paused awkwardly by the desk. “Hey, sweetie.”

“I’m mad at him,” Charlotte stated, not looking up.

“I heard,” Darcy assured her. “Wanna talk about it?”

“No.”

She shrugged and took a few cautious steps towards the bed. “Okay,” she said easily. “Wanna talk about something else?”

Charlotte looked up, curiously. “Like what?”

“Like anything,” Darcy said and sat down slowly on the edge of Charlotte’s bed. “I haven’t seen you since Monday morning. Fill me in on what’s been happening.”

The little girl thought it over for a moment before she shrugged. “I had a geography test. I think I did okay.”

“What kind of geography?”

“State capitals,” she said and continued,” and we got our costumes for the spring recital at dance on Tuesday.”

“Ooh, can I see?”

To Darcy’s relief, Charlotte put her rage-filled writing aside and retrieved the garment bag from her closet. She held it out so Darcy could untie the plastic and reveal the layers of soft yellow and blue fabric beneath.

“Beautiful,” Darcy said sincerely. “This is going to look so pretty with your blue eyes.”

Charlotte managed a small smile. “Yeah,” she said as they covered it back up with plastic. “I guess so.”

She struggled with the hanger and the closet door for a moment be fore Darcy jumped up and hung it back up for her. “So what else happened this week?” she asked when they’d sat back on the bed together. “How was Girl Scouts?”

“Stupid,” Charlotte said as her fledgling good mood vanished again.

Darcy frowned. “Is that Claudia girl picking on you again?”

“No,” Charlotte reached out and grabbed her nearest stuffed animal, a striped cat with a well-loved coat and tattered ears, and held it to her chest. “She wasn’t there. She has the flu.”

“Good,” Darcy said before she could stop herself from celebrating the fact that a mean little girl was ill. “Sorry,” she said quickly. “That wasn’t a very nice thing to say.”

Charlotte glanced up with a half-smile fighting the corner of her lips. “I won’t tell.” Darcy watched her frown return and deepen with whatever she was considering saying next. “Darcy?”

“Hmm?”

“Did you ever want to do something, but you couldn’t? But not because someone said you couldn’t? Just because you…” she stopped and shook her head. “Never mind.”

“That sounds a little complicated,” Darcy said gently. “Why don’t you try again? What do you want to do?”

Charlotte’s teeth pressed into her bottom lip and her chest rose and fell with a heavy breath. “My girl scout troop is doing a tea party the day before Mother’s Day and everyone is supposed to dress up and it’s going to be at a hotel that does real fancy tea and it sounds really fun but…” she trailed off and chewed her lip again.

“But?” Darcy prompted.

“But it’s supposed to be a…like a mom/daughter thing. Everyone is bringing their moms or grandmas.”

“Mmm,” she hummed with understanding and a twist of sympathy in her chest. “And you didn’t tell your dad about it because…”

Charlotte’s shoulders moved and her pout deepened. “I don’t want him to worry about it,” she admitted. “And he would probably say something dumb like _he_ would go with me and—” she cut herself off with a sigh. “That would just be _worse_.”

“Hmm,” Darcy said again and reached out to push Charlotte’s hair back behind her ear. “Well, now that _is_ a conundrum.” Her companion moved closer, still cuddling her tiger. “Can I tell you something?” Charlotte looked up, intrigued, and nodded. “I hate Mother’s Day.”

“You do?”

“Heck yeah, I do!” she exclaimed. “The one day of the year where everybody gets to rub it in my face that they still have a mom to spoil and I don’t. Everybody puts pictures all over the internet and writes these stupid long posts about how lucky they are to have such great moms…ugh. I hate it.”

“Me too,” Charlotte said quietly.

Darcy wrapped an arm around Charlotte’s shoulders and pulled her closer. “But I have to admit…” she said carefully, “I’ve never been to a genuine fancy tea party. That sounds pretty fun.” She gave the little girl a quick squeeze. “You think they’d let me go with you instead?”

Charlotte looked up, her dubious expression an exact replica of her father’s. “Really? You want to go with me?”

“Of course I do,” she assured her with a smile. “Why should we have to miss out on a fancy tea party just because we’re a pretty pair of motherless mongrels?” She gave Charlotte’s sides a tickle for good measure, relieved when she was finally rewarded with a giggle.

Charlotte set her tiger aside and wrapped her arms around Darcy’s waist. “Thanks Darcy,” she said, her words muffled against Darcy’s light sweater.

She dropped her head to kiss the top of Charlotte’s head. “Of course, sweetie.” She cleared her throat. “But can you do something for me please?”

Charlotte untangled herself and looked up. “What?”

“Can you go and apologize to your dad?”

Charlotte’s face pulled into a grimace. “Is he really mad?”

“I think his feelings are hurt more than anything else.”

“Aw dang,” Charlotte said. “That’s worse.”

“Yup,” Darcy agreed with a nod before she got to her feet. “Come on,” she said, holding out a hand. “The sooner the better; like ripping off a Band-Aid.”

Charlotte let herself be pulled off the bed and held onto Darcy’s hand while she opened the door and removed her _Keep Out_ sign. “Darcy?”

“What, peanut?”

“After I say sorry, and he’s not mad anymore,” she paused at the top of the stairs, considering the rest of her thought carefully. “Could you _please_ tell Daddy that he should let me put pink in my hair?”

Darcy laughed. “Oh no,” she shook her head. “That’s not how this works, girlfriend. Your dad gave you that hair,” she reminded, giving Charlotte’s blonde ponytail a playful tug. “He’s got at least a few more years of deciding what you’re allowed to do with it.” Charlotte let out a heavy, defeated sigh and Darcy tugged her hair again. “Nice try, though.”

***

When they got home from tea the following Saturday, Steve had trimmed two bouquets of lilacs from the tree in the yard and set them in glass jars on the table.

“ _For my beautiful motherless mongrels,”_ Darcy read from the note he’d left between the two jars. Charlotte giggled at their newly coined nickname as she set down her box of tea cakes and cookies. “ _Just had to run out to the store. I’ll be home soon. Hope you had fun at tea._  
_Love you both.”_

Steve was back within the hour with a bag of groceries to make Darcy’s favorite meal for dinner and a box of non-permanent pink hair dye.

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Mother's Day without a mom varies for me each year from mildly painful to excruciating. I had to write it out.
> 
> Hope you liked, that you'll let me know if you did, and that you'll come play with me on Tumblr @idontgettechnology. 
> 
> Kisses and love!


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